This Is China. I Laughed, I Cried.

I’m sorry, but is there anyone who has spent more than one week in China who has not experienced something pretty much just like this? The “this” to which I am referring is a Kafkaesque situation that so often occurs at hotels (or other businesses) in China.

In a post entitled, “Wuhan Weekend — Hassle at the Hanting,” the Truth From Facts Blog (TFF) writes about arriving at a Wuhan hotel to which TFF had reservations, only to be told that the hotel was full and the reservations were cancelled because TFF had not answered its cell phone for a number of calls that had never been made.

I love TFF’s post because though it made me laugh, angered me a little, and stressed me out a bit, which is exactly how I feel when these same sort of things happen to me in China. It caused me to relive the times such things have happened to me in China and made me think of how something like this will no doubt happen to me again when I return to China in June. China does not have a monopoly on bad service, but the treatment TFF received is so way more likely to happen in China than anywhere else — especially the purported cell phone call.

I am a founder of Harris Bricken, an international law firm with lawyers in Los Angeles, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, China and Spain.

I mostly represent companies doing business in emerging market countries. It has taken me many years to build my network and it takes constant communication and travel to maintain it. My work has been as varied as securing the release of two improperly held helicopters in Papua New Guinea, setting up a legal framework to move slag from Canada to Poland’s interior, overseeing hundreds of litigation and arbitration matters in Korea, helping someone avoid terrorism charges in Japan, and seizing fish product in China to collect on a debt.

I was named as one of only three Washington State Amazing Lawyers in International Law, I am AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory (its highest rating), I am rated 10.0 by AVVO.com (its highest rating), and I am a SuperLawyer.

I am a frequent writer and public speaker on doing business in Asia and I constantly travel between the United States and Asia. I most commonly speak on China law issues and I am the lead writer of the award winning China Law Blog (www.chinalawblog.com). Forbes Magazine, Fortune Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, Investors Business Daily, Business Week, The National Law Journal, The Washington Post, The ABA Journal, The Economist, Newsweek, NPR, The New York Times and Inside Counsel have all interviewed me regarding various aspects of my international law practice.

About China Law Blog

We will be discussing the practical aspects of Chinese law and how it impacts business there. We will be telling you what works and what does not and what you as a businessperson can do to use the law to your advantage. Our aim is to assist businesses already in China or planning to go into China, not to break new ground in legal theory or policy.